CDFW Restricts Recreational Crab Traps and Delays the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery to Protect Whales from Entanglement
Press release from CDFW:
The recreational take of Dungeness crab using crab traps will be temporarily restricted statewide when the season opens on Saturday, Nov. 5 due to presence of humpback and blue whales and the potential for entanglement from trap gear. Recreational take of Dungeness crab by other methods, including hoop nets and crab snares, is not affected by the temporary trap restriction and is allowed statewide beginning Nov. 5, 2022. However, the deployment and use of crab traps in any recreational crab fishery (including rock crab) is temporarily restricted in all fishing zones until lifted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Director. CDFW also reminds recreational crabbers to implement best practices, as described in the Best Practices Guide (PDF).
The commercial Dungeness crab fishery south of the Sonoma/Mendocino county line was scheduled to open on Nov. 15, 2022 in Fishing Zones 3, 4, 5 and 6. However, the season opener has been delayed in those zones due to presence of high numbers of humpback whales (PDF) and the potential for entanglement.
“Based on recent surveys, large aggregations of humpbacks whales continue to forage in California coastal waters and allowing the use of crab traps would increase the risk of an entanglement,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We will continue to work with both the recreational and commercial Dungeness crab fisheries to protect whales and sea turtles while striving to maximize fishing opportunity. We appreciate the ongoing commitment by the fleet and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to protect these incredible animals. These partnerships will continue to shape the future of both fisheries and we look forward to continuing the important work of providing fishing opportunity in the coming weeks.”
Prior to this determination, CDFW worked with a broad range of scientific partners, researchers, agencies and the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group to collect and synthesize information regarding presence of humpback whales, blue whales and leatherback sea turtles across each fishing zone. Aerial and vessel-based surveys indicate aggregations of humpback whales and several blue whales are present statewide. Under triggers established as part of the Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) regulations (PDF) for the commercial fishery as well as regulations for the recreational Dungeness crab fishery, the CDFW Director is required to implement a management action for these fishing zones to reduce marine life entanglement risk.
CDFW anticipates the next risk assessment will take place on or before Nov. 23, 2022, at which time the Director will re-evaluate the temporary recreational crab trap restriction and commercial fishery delay in Fishing Zones 3-6, as well as the need for any management actions for the commercial fishery in Fishing Zones 1 and 2. That risk assessment is expected to inform the potential for a statewide commercial fishery opener on Dec. 1 and the potential to modify the recreational trap restriction.
For more information related to the risk assessment process, please visit CDFW’s Whale Safe Fisheries page or more information on the Dungeness crab fishery, please visit www.wildlife.ca.gov/crab.
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This is why people shake their fists at California. Whales have come back from the brink of extinction to a very sizeable population and growing. Very few are killed per year from crab pot entanglement. Yet, the state is changing regs and restricting fishing every year. This is a huge hurdle financially and logistically for fisherman that are already hurting. Many people rely on this fishery for their livelihoods and tables. These new regs are absolutely absurd. Smh. ?
For protecting whales? Must be horrible people shaking their fists in that case.
How many deaths from entanglements per year should be considered acceptable?
4 to 5 I would say
Totally agree.
And yet there is a giant celebration over setting up permeant web of cables to hold down potentially hundreds of floating windmills
My friend’s wife is Japanese, I need to get her family to mail some whale meat. An old timer I know used to be a flenser at fields landing, he said it was delicious.
A coworker at LPLC, his dad was a welder for decades on the whale ships at Fields landing. His dad’s quote, “It’s like killing your grandfather when harvesting whales”. Only to feed the family was why he did the work, never took any home.
Total nonsense.
Those whales certainly aren’t here, particularly close to shore. This is another example of leftwing nonsense.
I like it when the cdfw do their job, and don’t pretend to be cops in the hills. Let’s see how you feel about offshore wind farms, Jefferson. I bet you will be against them because they might harm the whales. Maybe, it’s just sound science that they are going off of, and it’s not a left wing conspiracy to keep you from having Christmas crab? Maybe.
It’s okay to pretend to be cop at sea level just not in the hills.
Don’t want them busting your grow scene affecting your income and ability to put food on the table but it’s all right if it happens to fisherman. The proven science is that the same as the COVID science or the global warming science
Problem is, its not sound science. Numbers from a very small sample size of years of whale entanglement and one particular incident that happened in Monterey Bay are being applied to the whole state. Not science, overkill.
I’ve seen whales at Usal within 100 yards of the shore
Why did the cdfw give Jonathan Histrand and the Time Bandit from Alaska’a Deadliest Catch an exploratory permit to crab off our coast this season if the whales are in such jeopardy?
So a week ago I bought my fishing license and crab trap validation, but now I can’t use a crab trap. This state is a joke.
In other news, roads are temporarily being closed to motor vehicle travel due to increased vehicle/ wildlife interactions until an arbitrary date that an unelected bureaucrat can review synthesized data. This closure affects all roads regardless of any evidence of prior wildlife fatalities.
Everyone who payed the extortion fee for the crab trap endorsement on their fishing license should go to fish and wildlife in person and demand a refund.
The recreational season stays open until June each year. Losing a few weeks to protect whales is a reasonable sacrifice. Whinging about a mild inconvenience makes us sportsmen look like terrible selfish people
They shut down crab season early this year, I don’t remember when but it was before rockfish and salmon season opened which is when many sport fisherman crab in the spring. The other main time for sport fisherman is in the fall before the commercial fisherman start and the sport crabbing is better. It’s not really just a mild inconvenience to limit sport crabbing to December through February. I don’t know what vessel you use to crab during those months but there are very few days in those months that I would want to be on the ocean in any sport boat. Also in California it has been shown that cdfw takes an inch just before they take a mile.
Why doesn’t the us government have war games like they do in the gulf of Alaska now while they are migrating times like in Alaska .